"My dad, who was a private investor, always told me no one ever went broke taking a profit," he told Bryant. "And I think that's probably the best business advice, period. But a lot of the tech world is obsessed with growth and revenue and not profit. They're obsessed with ego. They're obsessed with all the things that I think are bad business."

"I do think it's good to have an enemy, but to me, the enemy is more an idea that you're opposed to, rather than another business. For example, we're opposed to the prevailing idea in our industry that you have to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week to do a good job. We believe 40 is enough."

Basecamp practices what Fried preaches. For instance, the company allows all of its approximately 50 employees to live and work from anywhere in the world, reported Business Insider's Áine Cain.